The eastern Tennessee city of Crossville tops a new ranking of best vacation-home markets.

The listing, by Attom Data Solutions, examines markets where at least 7.7 percent of homes are second homes. Attom considered appreciation, weather, crime, home price and air quality to come up with the list of top markets.

With the exception of Crossville and Ocean City, Maryland, all the Top 10 markets are in North Carolina or Florida.

The nation’s most-expensive vacation-home market, with a median home value of $1.2 million, is La Jolla, California.

Local prices rise more than national average

Columbus-area home prices rose 7.5 percent from May 2016 to this May, according to new data from the real-estate and mortgage service CoreLogic.

Central Ohio home prices outpaced the 6.6 percent national rate of growth over the 12-month span.

Two states experienced double-digit price appreciation during the period — Washington (12.6 percent) and Utah (10.4 percent) — while prices declined 2.2 percent in Wyoming, 1.2 percent in West Virginia and 0.3 percent in Alaska. Throughout Ohio, prices rose 1.8 percent.

CoreLogic forecasts that prices will rise 5.3 percent through May 2018.

“For current homeowners, the strong run-up in prices has boosted home equity,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

“For renters and potential first-time homebuyers, it is not such a pretty picture. With price appreciation and rental inflation outstripping income growth, affordability is destined to become a bigger issue in most markets.”

Columbus rents rising, but still considered low

Two new studies conclude that even though Columbus-area rents are rising faster than the national average, apartments here remain more affordable than elsewhere.

According to Apartment List, central Ohio rents rose 3.8 percent over the past year, compared with the U.S. average of 2.9 percent. The median rent for a two-bedroom Columbus-area apartment is $950, well below the national median of $1,150.

The listing service Zumper pegged the median price of a two-bedroom central Ohio apartment at $960, up 5.5 percent from a year ago. Zumper reported that the national price for a two-bedroom apartment in June stood at $1,347, the same as a year ago.